


If I Could Fly

by ChocolateCapCookie



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Adorable Steve Rogers, Adorable Tony Stark, Birdwatching, Established Relationship, Internal Monologue, M/M, Misunderstandings, Picnics, Superhusbands, basically 2k of fluffy sweetness, but the good kind, hes just mentioned but is important to the plot, i am a horrible writer, like seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:41:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21861103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocolateCapCookie/pseuds/ChocolateCapCookie
Summary: How could Tony hate birds?Birds wereamazing.Steve was no biologist, but he had gone to art school in the 40’s, he could appreciate the delicate beauty of the little flying creatures. The positioning of their feathers to make them look aesthetically pleasing, and yet make them lightweight and aerodynamic enough to fly; the brilliant or subtle colorings and shades depending on the species; and their adorably quick movements were all things Steve found fascinating.And now his husband had suddenly developed an irrational hatred for them? Unacceptable. Steve was going to have to fix this right away.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 77





	If I Could Fly

Tony was compiling a report on all of the Avengers after the newest ones had been added to the roster when it hit him.

Too many of them were animal-themed.

Just off the top of his head, he could think of Spider-Man, Falcon, Black Panther, Ant-Man and the Wasp. The talking rabbit and his friend, the Mantis character, who were off-world with Thor and the rest of the Guardians, but still officially counted as Avengers any time they were on Earth. Even Hawkeye and Black Widow, despite not having any powers, could technically be placed on the list for their animal-related monikers. And that was not even counting those fools with Professor Xavier; that guy had a literal wolf-human hybrid on his team.

A quick calculation (in his head, Tony was a genius, he didn’t need a calculator) told him that that was about 36% of the Avengers on the list, leaving out the X-Men. 36%. More than a quarter of the team had some sort of relationship to an animal. That was...not a good ratio.

Some powers, he could understand. His boy Peter’s spider-abilities were amazingly adapted for fighting, and Tony made a mental note to study the possibility of war-spiders in the future. T’challa was the leader of one of the richest nations in the world and was at perfect liberty to do whatever he wanted to protect his citizens, although Tony wouldn’t personally have gone for the metal-cat-of-death look. Ant-Man and the Wasp made some kind of sense, even if he didn’t fully understand the density paradoxes in their shape-shifting (or size-shifting, if you wanted to be accurate). Hawkeye and Widow didn’t really count, and neither did the Guardians.

Sam, though, was another matter. First off, he wouldn’t even have been an Avenger in the first place if he hadn’t met Steve by the barest of chances. Second, using his military training and equipment to help them fight battles was cool and all but didn’t necessarily mean he had powers like the others (Yes, Tony could see the irony in that. No, he didn’t really care.)

Sam was the problem. Sam had to be stopped. Or at least be given a less animal-themed nickname.

  
  
  


“Stop thinking so much, Tony,” said Steve sleepily, nuzzling his head into the crook of Tony’s neck. “I can feel it from down here.” Tony simply frowned, absentmindedly running a hand through Steve’s hair.

Steve frowned too. It wasn’t like his outgoing husband to keep quiet when they were together. “Everything okay, Tony?” he tried again.

“Birds are bullshit,” mumbled Tony, completely ignoring Steve and going off on several tangents in his head.  _ The Falcon’s a cool name for a flying hero,  _ he thought to himself.  _ But maybe we could rebrand Sam to be the Flying Man or something instead. _

“Tony,” pressed Steve, more insistently this time, and Tony sighed, coming back down to earth.

“I was just thinking,” he said, “We need to change Sam’s name. ‘The Falcon’...just doesn’t sound that nice.”

“‘The Falcon’ is a great name for a superhero,” argued Steve.

“Maybe I just don’t like birds.”

“Birds are also great, Tony.”

“I still don’t like them. I can’t have a bird on my team!”

Tony could almost literally  _ feel  _ Steve roll his eyes below him, and he allowed a fond smile to pass over his face. “Shut up, I’m always right,” he mumbled as he fell asleep, pulling Steve closer towards him.

_______

Steve couldn’t stop replaying the conversation he’d had with Tony last night as he went through the motions of showering, running and then the gym. He was used to his husband moving a mile a minute, jumping from one subject to another so fast it made Steve’s head spin. He could talk about anything, from quantum physics to Phineas and Ferb (arguably the best thing to come out of the twenty-first century).

But how could Tony hate  _ birds? _

Birds were _amazing._ Steve was no biologist, but he had gone to art school in the 40’s, he could appreciate the delicate beauty of the little flying creatures. The positioning of their feathers to make them look aesthetically pleasing, and yet make them lightweight and aerodynamic enough to fly; the brilliant or subtle colorings and shades depending on the species; and their adorably quick movements were all things Steve found fascinating. It was no coincidence that some of his earliest drawings as a child were of birds. Later, Bucky had trapped and brought home several for his friend to sketch over and over to his heart’s content. Steve loved the little creatures.

And now his husband had suddenly developed an irrational hatred for them? Unacceptable. Steve was going to have to fix this right away.

Luckily for him, Tony had no pressing obligations that day, and neither did Steve. Making up his mind, he immediately walked into the kitchen and started preparing sandwiches of all kinds. As he slathered eight slices of bread with mayo, he pulled out his phone to call Tony, who, to no one’s surprise, was still asleep.

“This better be good, Steven,” growled Tony sleepily, his voice muffled. Steve smiled, already picturing how adorable Tony probably looked at that moment with his head stuffed into a pillow.

“Good morning, sunshine!” said Steve cheerily, pressing the phone between his ear and his shoulder so he could continue to make the sandwiches. “You might want to get dressed, I have a surprise for you.”

“I don’t like surprises this early in the morning unless it involves you naked,” said Tony, and Steve rolled his eyes. “What is it?”

“If I told you, then it wouldn’t be a surprise would it?” chirped Steve. “C’mon babe, waking up early for a change won’t kill you.”

“More like  _ I  _ will kill  _ you, _ ” mumbled Tony, but Steve could hear him climb off the bed and into the shower. “You owe me for this. And this ‘surprise’ better be good.”

  
  
  


“A picnic?” asked Tony sarcastically, although he couldn’t hide the gleam of happiness in his eyes. “You woke me up for this?”

“You know you love it, Tony,” laughed Steve. Tony smiled reluctantly.

“I do,” he admitted, lying back luxuriantly on the soft blanket Steve had spread on the grass, “It’s like being a kid again.” Steve laughed and started unpacking the supplies he’d brought as Tony looked at him in mock suspicion. “Why’re you doing this, huh? Did I miss an anniversary or something? I know it’s not your birthday yet...wait, is it my birthday?”

“It’s not your birthday, Tony,” said Steve fondly.

“Then what’s all this for?’

Steve paused, unsure what to say. His plan would clearly only work if Tony didn’t know about it. He’d spent quite some time looking for the perfect spot that was also private enough for two of the most popular Avengers to go on a date without being mobbed. He didn’t really want to have to go through all that work again.

“Is it so bad that I just wanted to do something nice for you?” he said finally, seating himself next to his husband. “We haven’t been on a real date in a long time.”

“True,” agreed Tony, closing his eyes and shifting positions so he was lying on Steve’s lap. “I forgot how comfy you are.”

“Nope, nope, nope,” said Steve, gently pushing Tony’s head up and away from his lap. “You have to keep your eyes open for this.”

“For what?” argued Tony grumpily.

In answer, Steve simply stuck his hand into a small bag and scattered a few seeds onto the grass in front of them. “Watch.”

There was a fragile silence for a few seconds before a small bluebird came flying inquisitively from a nearby tree. It looked at Steve and Tony cautiously, and Steve whispered a quiet “Don’t move” to Tony. After a few seconds of the men staying absolutely still, the bluebird must have decided they were safe to be around, and happily started pecking at the seeds around him.

Its little chirps brought more birds of different kinds flying down to Steve and Tony’s picnic spot, until there were at least a dozen birds gathered in front of them, pecking the ground for seeds and chirping merrily to each other. Tony simply watched, transfixed, as Steve scattered more seeds in front of him. With some careful coaxing, Steve led a couple of brown sparrows onto the blanket, where they soon got comfortable enough to peck seeds straight out of Steve’s hand.

“D’you want to try?” asked Steve quietly, careful not to move his hand. Tony nodded and Steve gently dropped a trail of seeds from his hand leading up to Tony’s. The birds followed a little cautiously, but happily abandoned all their reservations at the sight of the big pile of food in Tony’s cupped hands.

Tony looked up at Steve with big wondrous eyes as he felt the hard pecks of the assorted medley of birds on his hands. Neither of them said a word to each other until Steve’s supply of seeds ran out and the birds flew away, chirping happily as if gossiping about the feast they had shared. The last bird remaining, the bluebird that had flown down first, perched itself on Steve’s hair for a moment and looked directly at Tony (as directly as it was possible to look when its eyes were on the sides of its head). It nodded its head, as if thanking the men for their generosity, and spread its wings to join its friends.

All Tony could say was “Wow,” as the couple watched the bird fly away and out of sight. He turned to look at his husband, his eyes bright and twinkling. “That was amazing.”

Steve pulled Tony into a side hug and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “You have no reason to hate birds anymore, Tony,” he said softly, teasingly. Damn birds always had that effect on him; even back in the 40’s he’d turn into a total softie when he held one of those little feathery creatures in his hands. Tony just looked up at him, bewildered.

“I don’t hate birds,” he said, his brows wrinkling in confusion. “I mean, I grew up in the city and I don’t know anything about birds, but I don’t hate them. In fact, after this,” he sighed and laid a head on Steve’s shoulder, “I think I love them.” 

Now it was Steve’s turn to be confused. “But Tony,” he said, “You told me yourself you hated birds. That’s why I brought you here, because I love birds. I always have, ever since I was a kid and Bucky would run around the park chasing them and I’d sit in a corner trying to draw them flying. Then Bucky started actually catching them for me, and I’d keep them as pets, until my ma noticed and whooped me for being cruel to animals.” Steve smiled at the memory, absently watching the silhouettes of flying birds dotted against the evening sky. “I wanted you to love them as much as I did.”

Tony pulled his head out of its resting spot on Steve’s neck and looked at him with a mixture of amusement and confusion. “Are you telling me,” he asked, his voice slightly choked, for some reason Steve couldn’t point out. “You brought me here, did all this...because I was complaining about The Falcon?”

“You said you didn’t want a bird on the team! You said you hated them,” said Steve defensively. Tony burst into laughter.

“Steve,” he said between giggles. “That’s not what I meant.” He explained the too-many-animals-on-the-team conundrum and how he’d arrived at the conclusion that Sam needed a different nickname, Steve’s face growing redder and redder as he spoke.

“Right,” said Steve, when Tony finished his story. “So I just embarrassed myself. Very badly.” his face was flushed so red, he almost matched the color of the evening sky behind him. Still smiling, Tony reached over to grab Steve’s hand.

“I’d say it was my fault for not explaining it better,” he said, pressing soft kisses up Steve’s jaw. “And it’s not embarrassing. This is the best date I’ve ever been on, no question. I can’t believe you set this whole thing up for me, because you wanted me to have something to love. And I do. I love it so much, sweetheart. Thank you.”

He kissed Steve’s lips, soft and slow, and Steve sighed into the kiss. He might have messed up his reasons but this was still a date. An amazing date. He pulled Tony onto his lap, and the couple stayed seated there, making out like teenagers. It started off sweet and slow, but slowly grew more heated and passionate, until Steve pulled away to catch his breath. Tony moved slightly, almost inconspicuously, in his lap, but even that slight movement was enough for Steve to gasp with pleasure. He scanned the area hurriedly, and seeing no one around, flipped Tony so he was lying on the blanket and Steve was above him. Tony smirked.

“How about we give those birds dinner  _ and  _ a show?”

**Author's Note:**

> I should seriously start writing things with an actual plot lmao, but hopefully this was cute and fluffy enough to make up for the lack of story.
> 
> Comments and kudos are v appreciated, and help me very much to write this stuff everyday :) If you guys wanna help a girl out :)
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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